Ready Rhetorics: International LGBT Activism, Local Contexts, and Political Homophobia in Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda

• In Event: 175 - Section on Sex and Gender Paper Session. Gender Activism and the Global South

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, Political leaders in several African countries have increasingly spoken out against homosexuality and pursued legislation to expand the criminalization of same-sex sex. Yet, much of the research on efforts to expand criminalization of same-sex sexualities in Africa has focused on individual country cases, neglecting the role of national and transnational sociopolitical contexts and economic flows. Drawing on an original dataset of news media from Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda, three countries that have recently increased penalties for same-sex sex and that have substantial linkages to state and nonstate actors in the West, we examine 1) how transnationally-circulating discourses on same-sex sexualities inform the development of local discourses around criminalization and 2) how LGBT activism and issues, including sexual health, intersect with other sociopolitical and economic issues in countries pursuing regressive policies. Our findings link struggles around homosexuality to larger conflicts over social change, political instability and resource distribution, and global status hierarchies.

Authors

• Tara A. McKay, University of California-Berkeley

• Nicole Angotti, American University